Deal To Fed: Talk To States Before Sending Unaccompanied Minors

With Congress still dithering on comprehensive immigration reform and the White House selectively enforcing (or totally ignoring) laws already on the books, states continue to be at the front line of having to deal with the immigration crisis absent any other solution. This Week Governor Rick Perry authorized 1,000 National Guard members to the boarder. Other states well inland continue to see or fear an imminent influx of minor children from Central America.

Governor Deal today sent out the following press release, indicating that Georgia and other states should be consulted before the Feds decide to direct minor refugees here, awaiting case adjudication and possible deportation.

Gov. Nathan Deal today sent this letter to ask the Obama administration to define the status of the Central American unaccompanied minors being held by federal authorities before asking private or state organizations to take them in.

“The state of Georgia has received no guidance from the federal government about what it plans to do with these children, even though we’ve read news reports that federal agencies have touched base with private charitable organizations in the state,” Deal said. “Before any children are sent to Georgia, we need to know their federal status and the plan for returning them to their parents or guardians. We are particularly interested to know if the children will be classified as ‘refugees,’ which would entitle them to all social welfare benefits available to Americans. Between Medicaid and school enrollment, this would come with a large price tag for Georgia taxpayers, and that’s unacceptable. Georgia already holds a disproportionately large refugee community, and I’ve worked with Democratic state representatives who asked me to help deal with the challenges of large refugee communities lacking job and language skills needed for self-sufficiency. These challenges are compounded when the refugees are children here without their families.

“Just this week, we learned from a federal agency that – unknown to us – from Jan. 1 to June 30 the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement released 1,154 unaccompanied children to sponsors – typically a parent or other family relative – residing in Georgia. I have also heard from state legislators in certain areas of the state of a recent surge in school enrollment of children from Central America.

“Our hearts and sympathy go out to the children who are the victims of this humanitarian crisis. This should not have happened and would not have happened if not for the Obama administration’s ill-conceived immigration policies. Circumventing the rule of law leads to unintended consequences, and that’s certainly the case here.

“We all want to see these children safety returned to their home countries. Before the federal government asks states to take in children who don’t have a family to live with here, we need to get serious questions answered about the children’s federal status and the government’s short- and long-term plans for resolving this issue.”

States can only do so much in trying to fix this problem. Somehow, a gridlocked if not broken Washington needs to get something done that solves our immigration issues once and for all.

Agree with Deal. States and all taxpayers need to know what’s going on. In a previous post I noted channels 2,5 did story on two teens reunited with a Marietta dad who could not speak English. Think these teens are gonna show for a hearing?

Also http://www.worldvision.org is sending e-mails soliciting funds to support unaccompanied kids. The original e-mail referenced 13 locations but now the 13 has been removed.

Also why does Homeland Sec. Johnson remind me of Bush and FEMA director Brown (hell of a job Brownie) ?

But the Feds are talking to the states before sending them unaccompanied minors…the Feds are telling states “We’re going to send you a few unaccompanied Central American minors, where are the best places drop them at?”

I agree the Obama Administration should inform Georgia officials about its plans that involve Georgia. Pleasantries aside, Perry’s militarization is the type of solution what Americans expect from a warmongering GOP.

And there’s the a magic word: fear. In this case of the fear of brown children that (not that I would support it) would create jobs in Georgia. Prisons are sought after business by south Georgia local governments, and CO employment is sought by its electorate, what with the state being so business friendly ‘n everything.

And who knew that legislators would be attuned to 1,154 new students joining a population of 1,600,000, a less than 0.07% increase. This is after all a General Assembly whose education funding seems to indicate they haven’t for years been paying attention to classrooms over state maximum.

This is outrageous, if it were Europeans coming to this state, the governor would be so glad to welcome them. Not only is the governor rejecting to help the children, he also passed the anti-immigration law in 2010. The republican party should be the party of immigrants, but they are mostly rejecting what they perceive is not the norm. I’ve seen it myself, with all the propaganda coming from fox news and talk radio, they misinform the public about minority groups, which is very cruel. We should be welcoming the children, Georgia is becoming the California of the South. We are becoming a more diverse state.

President Obama didn’t invite them, they arrived from oppression and poverty. What happened to “Compassionate Conservatism”? This is country of immigrants and previous presidents as well as the current president championed for a call on immigration reform. The U.S. has spent billions by policing the world, we can also accept the monetary price for refugees’ services. If President Obama wants most of these children to stay here, then this former Republican will support him 100 % for that decision.

The laws are already in place, thanks to President George W. Bush’s refugee protection program. Passed by a republican congress and signed by a president who stressed “Compassionate Conservatism”. The senate has passed their own version of immigration reform, by a coalition of democrats and almost half of the republicans. Sen. Isakson and Chambliss, voted yes to end cloture, and let the immigration reform bill pass. There are the votes to pass this bill with a delegation of democrats and some republicans who support it.

Airliner shot down over the Ukraine! Call out the military. It’s what Ronald Reagan would have done, except that he didn’t when the Russians shot down a Japanese airliner with a US Congressmen on board.

Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi! Obama should’ve have done something! What with us all knowing the details surrounding the multiple US diplomatic employees killed oversees on George Bush’s watch, the proper action was cut and dried.

Or the 200 Marines killed in 1983 on (again) St. Ronnie’s watch. The Dems investigations and finger pointing drug on for years, what with them threatening to hold up Presidential appointments because of a lack of cooperation.

Sessions will not be hurt by his anti-immigrant statements, since he represents Alabama. On the other hand, Cruz will possibly lose in 2020, since the Texas Republican Party as well as the National Republican Party have become very anti-immigrant. This will energize the huge Latino population, especially the Mexican-American community, to vote democratic and the republicans nationally will lose the presidential election for more than a generation. Texas is not Georgia where politicians can demonize immigrants. I’ve been telling my republican Latino friends about my bad experiences in Georgia with racism, and they are just appalled.

Cruz’ hypocrisy is disheartening. Here’s a guy that wouldn’t be in this country if not for the U.S. being open to his father and other Cuban refugees. I guess since he’s gotten his it’s time to slam the door. Real Christ-like.

You are absolutely right. It is really very saddening to see politicians using racial slurs and condemning communities that have deep historical roots in the state. I would have always thought that the first Latino senator in Texas would be a Mexican-American, but it turned out to be a rightwing extremist. People who use this political power for their own benefits rather than helping the communities.

Latinos tend to vote democrat anyway due to the democratic party’s philosophy on government being a social caretaker. If support for immigrants is supposed to help the GOP get votes, then why was the GOP not rewarded when Reagan threw the hail-mary of all hail-Mary’s by providing amnesty? Following that political blunder, study after study showed that Latino votes not only continued to go to the democratic party, but their support for the democrats actually grew after Reagan’s amnesty.

They are not single-issue voters. If the GOP wants to support open-borders, Latinos would probably be as happy as I am when a democrat votes against a tax raise. But it doesn’t mean I’d suddenly vote for that democrat when you start piling up all the other issues we probably disagree on. Same thing goes for the GOP. The GOP might be doing one good thing in their eyes by supporting open-borders, but the GOP doesn’t support gov’t-paid healthcare, gov’t-paid housing, “free” stuff like most central American countries’ governments do. For that, their votes will, as historical data shows, go to the democratic party, which supports open-borders plus all that other crap.